What Happens When Your Donor History Vanishes?

You know that one family member who shows up to every family reunion? The one who knows every cousin/aunt/uncle/great-grandfather and how the entire family tree fits together? At any given moment, you can ask them, “when did great grandfather Harry buy the family cottage?” or “What year did we have that last big reunion?” or even “Can you send me great grandma Ethel’s cinnamon roll recipe?”

Joyfully, they will answer – imparting the knowledge that knits the family together.

But what if they left… with just two weeks’ notice … and took all the family stories and connections with them?

Consider if it happened every 3 to 5 years ... What if all that knowledge and lore and relationship building just walked away - without leaving any notes?

Yet those departures happen often in nonprofits.

A Development Director or Gift Officer leaves the organization without having documented the many connections and relationships they’ve built for the organization … and with them goes your history. They didn’t type up notes on the conversation over lunch last year with your top donor or record the summer address of your newest Board member.

Without saving important details in a well-structured database – like donor relationships and contact history -- when outward facing staff and volunteers leave, so does key institutional history.

Then, the organization must start over and rebuild relationships, reestablish connections, and relearn the interests of their supporters.

Just like Grandmother Ethel expects her favorite recipes to be saved and shared, your supporters are relying on organizational memory held by individuals.

Donors assume that the information they entrust to a staff member over lunch – about their interests, inclinations, and connections – is being kept by the organization. They expect that you’ll know who they are, what they care about, and how to contact them when their support is needed.

If you don’t believe me, just ask a donor, or show up to a meeting without understanding the relationship’s history. When you hear things like “I already told that other person last time …” or “What happened to Sherry? She knew which program I was interested in,” you’ll know that you have a relationship that’s in trouble.

When donor data is lost, the loss of donor connections quickly follow.

Just like one family member shouldn’t hold all the family stories … one staff person shouldn’t hold all the institutional knowledge about your supporters.

So be sure to save an extra cinnamon roll for Uncle James so he feels welcome at every family gathering. And be sure your team is taking notes and entering data into your database as relationships grow … so your donors remain a part of your nonprofit’s family. That way, when someone gives two weeks’ notice, you aren’t scrambling to download every donor interaction from their memory.